I don't want this thread to turn into a gush fest, but Brothers is one of my favorite games ever. Talk about a game as a piece of art, where "video games" is the only medium the story could be told in. Did anyone else get emotional moved as I did? Maybe it is just where I am in my life, but it hit me in all the right ways.

Other people did, but I was not one of them. I thought the control scheme was annoying. I know it was "the point" but spent a significant amount of time fighting against the controls to enjoy the story. There was one single instance in the whole game were I felt the control scheme felt like it had a place. When the big brother dies and you have to use his side of the controller to swim across the river. Other than that, it was just meh.

As for the story, it was pretty predictable I felt and had no impact. The world seemed pretty interesting but there was no substance to any of it. The game and story didn't actual do enough to make me care about any of the characters for any of it to have an impact.

But I'm in the minority of people who didn't seem to be emotionally touched by that game.

Not really. For me, it's a three star game. For the most part, I didn't really enjoy it that much, but that was evened out by the great ending moment.

Nah, I disliked almost everything about it. Even (or maybe because of) as someone with a brother who I'm very close with. I lasted only up until the town when I just couldn't stand it anymore.

I couldn't find ten games last year better than Brothers. I really liked it.

I think it fails on all levels. I don't think your opinion is wrong, but I'm at the opposite.

They had an idea that only work in "one" moment, at the end, and tried to create a game with it. The gameplay part just don't work, I think. It wasn't engaging at all for me.

I thought it was surprising how many people were amazed at how the game's gameplay inform the theme. It only does at the end, it's just one "trick", a gimmick. The same year, a game like Papers Please had gameplay concepts that not only inform the theme and the story, but does so all the way through. It's a different game, but it pulled off what Brothers was applauded for way better (and more subtly) than Brothers did, I think.

I think Brothers looks beautiful though.

Sorry if I'm harsh to a game you love :/.

I enjoyed it for the most part. The mechanics were fun and different. The story and tone were pretty somber overall(not in a bad way at all), but became a bit too predictable for me. Loved the art style and look of the game. Overall, I liked Brothers and wished it would have been a longer game. I'd give 4/5 stars.

I too loved it and felt really moved when the control scheme payoff occurred. The ability to covey that story point without spelling it out was a unique experience that could not be achieved by any other medium. Probably the strongest emotional moment I have experienced in a game.

Yeah, man. Set aside a night to beat the whole thing, and I loved everything about it.

Yeah I played it in one morning with a cup of coffee. Perfect way to consume it. :-)

I will just copy what I said in another thread last year:

The game was entirely too hamfisted in its attempts at emotional manipulation for me to think anything of it. The game isn't long enough and there isn't enough character development present for anything other than "a sad thing happened so you should feel sad." The plot is obvious and predictable (even down to the way they intertwine the mechanic at the end), the puzzles were literally never challenging, and the mechanic wasn't clever or revelatory for me because I played Schizoid five years ago. I even like art and indie games and am an older brother, but I think it's certifiably insane that people think this is one of the best games that came out this year.

So yeah. Cool that you liked it, I guess, but I thought it was an actively bad game.

Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons is probably the laziest «art game» I can think of. It is incredibly derivative not only of influencial art games of the past (You beat the giant spider at the end in the same way you beat the giant spider in Limbo, and there is of course a great influence from Team Ico) but even of art games that haven't even come out yet (That giant flying creature stuck in a castle totally does not remind you of The Last Guardian). Its story is so predictable and clichéd, going from world to world without any real thematic progression. And even if the graphics and art direction was good, the camera constently stares down at the player so that you see very little of it. When you put benches in your game so the player can watch the scenary, it is not a success. it means that you failed to utilise those assets accordingly in the main game. There is also no need for its characters to speak; if your game tells mainly tells its story through the body language of your cast, why put completely useless words from a made up language in their mouths? It does absolutely nothing except annoy the player.

So yeah, I think Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons is really shallow and derivate, both emotionally and mechanically. Two stars.

I really liked it. The ending is superb.

The whole burial scene glitched out on me and broke any sense of emotional immersion.

So I kinda don't like Brothers.

Loved the beans out of it!

Wow, I'm surprised how many people didn't like the game, I found it to be one if the best games I've ever played.

Glad you enjoyed it. I really liked it too. The bit at the end was moving for me, but I was especially impressed by the mileage they managed to get out of such simple controls. Looking back, I am floored by the breadth of shit I did in that game just by twiddling some sticks: I murdered a giant spider, flew a hang glider, rode a goat...

That you've ever played or just you know, like recently?

Back when it was new, I felt like I didn't enjoy it as much as other people, but apparently now, presumably after the hype's died down, it seems like I enjoyed it more than most.

Personally, that single moment justified the 20 (15?) dollars I spent on it. That moment was great (though at the time, I felt like didn't move me quite as much as I would've liked it to) and everything up to that point felt sufficiently pretty and whimsical for me to remember it fondly.

The problem I had with the game was there was no pay-off on all of the characters you meet throughout the game (ultimately they were tiny moments holding up the game or parts of a stupid achievement) and the main game was too predictable.

The first time I turned on the game, about a minute into it (just after the shot of the ginger kid and his mother's grave and then the introduction of moving something with both of the boys being different buttons) I turned to my sister and said (spoilers because I was right): "I bet this game ends with the older kid dying, you play as the ginger kid, and then you have to do something that the game makes note of the ginger kid's inability to do so on his own, but by clicking the button of the older kid allows the ginger kid to complete it with the added power of the older kids ghost magic/love. The final scene will be at the same grave but instead there are two tombstones, the second being the older kid..."

Great game, but completely overrated.

Before I shit all over what was very clearly a lovely experience for you, I just wanna say that I'm super happy you enjoyed the game and I wish it'd grabbed me the same way. That being said..

It controls like garbage (although it's an interesting concept), it's "puzzles" aren't challenging in the slightest, and (here's my real problem) it tries to tug on your heartstrings with the subtlety of the fucking apocalypse, while giving you little to no incentive to even care about the characters. It's We'll try to make you cry - the game. It's emotionally manipulative in the most ham-fisted, awkward way possible.

Journey, Dear Esther, Limbo, Gone Home, To The Moon etc. are all exceptional games in my book, and I fully expected to love Brothers, but compared to the former, it's like a Baby's first indie game. The high praise it got is mindbogglingly to me.

It was my worst game (I bothered playing) of 2013.

That's pretty much where I came down on it. I liked it, but didn't like it like it. The ending was moving, but I wasn't blown away by it. Everything that happened before it was nice and pretty, but was never fully compelling on its own. I don't recall the gameplay being very frustrating, but it also never really felt all that rewarding.

I get the feeling that it might be the sort of thing I like a bit more the second time through. Good thing it's short enough that I might very well play through it a second time at some point.

kinda sad when the one thing that got to me a bit emotionally was not the whole brothers stuff but the fact they killed the owl griffon.

Jerks.